Well... another thought and then I'm going to go hide for another 6 months. It's not the emotions of the characters that's important... it's the emotions of the READERS.
What did you feel, for example, the first time you saw this:
...or this:
...or yes, [*SOB!*] this:
In none of these instances did the characters "act" over the top--but as I recall the emotional response of readers on the Forum was pretty strong for each of these panels: relief, joy, sorrow. When characters are real and sympathetic, readers will feel FOR them...and a good author serves as a sort of emotional tour guide, using all the skills in the toolbox to cue readers up for max feels in moments big and small.

1) No, I'm not back.
2) It's unclear from the question to what community the OP refers. The community of KSP players on the forum? Well, there isn't one--by which I mean, there isn't ONLY one. There are builders and grinders and every other sort of gamer. Many of these couldn't care less about what the Kerbals in their game think or feel, they're only interested in playing the game and maybe acquiring some mods and designs to make their game more fun. There are also people who can't help but anthropomorphize their Kerbals and create little narratives in their heads as they play. And then there are people who take that to the next step and create stories about Kerbals that are only loosely linked to missions and gameplay, or not at all. THAT community is, well, the writers and readers who hang out in this corner of the Forum, and that community does appreciate well-told tales that consider the emotions of Kerbals.
3) But... if what the OP proposes is to really put the EMO in EMOtional... well then I'm with @steuben, its really hard to explore space and have an effusively public existential crisis at the same time

Well, I post(ed) no more than a few comic pages at a time... each of which contains a laboriously edited collection of sometimes several screenshots. So, I don't think my readers ever really ran into a loading time problem. The downside is that not everyone has time to do it that way, including me right now

Yeah, me too Hopefully I can do so before I forget what everyone was going to do next! But it's not going to be for at least another few months... wish I could tell you all what I've been doing instead, and I do miss both the game and the Forums

I suppose I've been away enough (again) that some folks are wondering what happened to me. Remember this?
Turns out that whatever that thing was, that Department actually decided to fund it. All I can tell you is that it involves things that are very tall and might help save humanity. But TOTALLY not rockets. Really!
And so, yeah I was busy before but now I'm really busy--Kerbfleet will continue when it continues, as it always (more or less) has.

Duna, Ore Bust! was not plotted out in advance, at all. I suppose it was what you could call an "enhanced" mission report. I knew I wanted to explore Duna with a spaceplane, and that was it. All of the story elements happened because that was how it worked out in the gameplay: for example, Lisa replaced Bob on the mission for exactly the reason stated in the comic--it would have taken too long to retrieve him from the Munstation. Once Lisa was in the crew, I used her to explore themes I couldn't have explored with Bob... but if Bob had been on Kerbin when Hummlebee launched, I'm sure I would have come up with something different and specific to his character.
Eve: Order Zero was also an "enhanced" mission report, but in this case I set up a specific scenario to make the mission more interesting--I stranded Kerbals on the surface of Eve to set up an impossible rescue mission. When I sent the Dipperkraft into Eve's atmosphere I knew Bob would be landing on the surface...I did not know whether Tedus would survive or not. Obviously (in retrospect, seeing as i chose the title), I knew from the beginning that in the story the rescue would involve a series of heists and be contrary to Kerbfleet orders. So in addition to the mission report stuff, I wanted to tell you a story about heroism and friendship and "no one gets left behind".
And the present book--Kerbfleet: A Jool Odyssey. This one is a hybrid. The design and launching of Intrepid, the journey to Jool all the landings etc. are just another "enhanced" mission report. I am playing the game 100% straight in these scenes. The Kerbulan part of the story is different. Here I'm writing a story with a beginning, a middle, and yes an end, that plays out somewhat independently of the Jool-5 mission. In a lot of cases the Kerbulan stuff (especially the Battle of Kerbin) isn't even happening in the same save file as the "real" mission.
This one isn't over so I can't say much, other than that 90% of everything that's happened regarding the Kerbulans was fully planned out long, long ago. You can see me setting up some of it way back in the Eve book. I had originally thought that I would have a fourth book after this one, and I did indeed have an outline in my head already for such a book--but I think it's pretty certain Jool Odyssey will be my last KSP graphic novel.

Well, as a 48 year old aspiring trombonist I couldn't agree with @KSK's general principle and specific example more. I keep one trombone at home and one in the office (yes, really) so I can practice whenever I have a spare few minutes. In the six years I've been working on it, I've gone from very basic can-sort-of-make-a-note to performing on stage, under lights, with a few different bands. I practice my instrument a heck of a lot more than my kids practice theirs, and believe me I do remark on that when they wonder why they're not first chair in wind ensemble
I suppose I'm learning writing (and have been learning, continually, for about 40 years now) the same way I'm learning trombone, and I would just add one thing to @KSK's rock god example: criticism. Yes you have to get it from others: directly from helpful friends and indirectly from your readers. It can be hard to stay objective and know what to listen to and what to discard in that criticism, but a good writer develops the knack. I suppose receiving criticism is something else that can be practiced
BUT the most IMPORTANT and VALUABLE CRITIC IS --
YOU!!!
If you can look at something you wrote and tell whether it's good or crap, you'll progress much, much faster. It's like the computer algorithms that learn to play really good chess--they work by playing millions of games against themselves and continually refining techniques based on the outcome. The difference of course is that a chess result is objective and a writing (or musical) result is not. But as with anything else, self-criticism can be developed through practice. A good way to start is by reading a lot of stuff and criticizing it. What worked? What didn't work? and WHY??? If you can answer that last question and apply it to your OWN work, you WILL write better.

I read through it... and I'm sorry, it's hard to tell you much since there really isn't much connecting the narrative to actually tell a story. It's a mash-up, like your sig says: you take some elements from Kerbfleet (the spelling of Captin, a fourth wall breach...) some elements from Emiko (which is far, far from over...) some elements from Duna Attacks and I can't tell where else.
Well, it takes more than borrowing a few memes to make a story. The reason those elements from my work and @Just Jim's resonated with you are because they are from carefully constructed narratives that drew you in and made you think or feel something. Most good stories on this Forum start with an interesting mission, then add characters and narrative that makes the reader care a bit more. Maybe start with that?

I'll stay (mostly) dead and let the readers analyze this, but yes @greenTurtle1134 you make an excellent point. I think most would agree this probably wouldn't have worked for any other Kerbulans we've met.
So, why did it work on these two? Kerbulans have consistently been motivated by exactly one thing: fear. Fear of the agonizer, fear of assassination--I think it was Kenlie who observed that the more murdery a Kerbulans was, the more afraid they were of meeting someone even more murdery.
Kurt and Melgee are extremely murdery, and extremely identical. Often we don't know where the mind of one ends and the other begins. They play chess by taking turns being White and playing the Fool's Mate over and over. And Kenlie's threat was to change just one of them, horribly and permanently. He didn't even say which one he'd shoot.
I'll say no more here, but Kenlie might express some thoughts later in his personal log

Hi Hanson looks like you're a new reader, glad to have you! Please edit your post to put the quotes comics pages in a spoiler tag if you don't mind: otherwise the repeated and out of order pages mess up the flow of comics as people go through the thread. Thanks!